Mr. Allison is clear about his basic principles. He understands that economic success can only come about in a nation of free people who benefit or suffer from their own decisions. He understands that production engaged in by free individuals, not consumption, will improve economic conditions and he understands that re-distribution brings little in the way of economic stimulus. Please note: All blogs on this account are copyrighted in the year of their publication by Robert Villegas, Jr.

If you were offered a book about how to live without guilt
and be more successful, would you be interested?If it taught you that success is good and more
is better, would you be intrigued?If it
helped you understand the incessant attacks on capitalism by politicians,
journalists and social planners, would you check it out?

The book is called “Free Market Revolution, How Ayn Rand’s
ideas Can End Big Government”.Its goal
is to clarify some important philosophical and economic issues and convince you
that Ayn Rand’s ideas have the solutions we need for a civilized society.It challenges some of history’s falsehoods
and provides a new way of looking at economics.It can help voters, students, business people and even politicians
understand the factors that move society.

The authors, Yaron Brook and Don Watkins point readers toward
a new moral and political theory that challenges the corruption of today’s
world.Ayn Rand was an iconoclast who,
even today, stirs both anger and respect among the millions who read her books.Her
philosophy is a full-fledged integrated system with all the characteristics of
a complete, consistent frame of reference.Objectivism, as it is called, is entirely original.

Mr. Brook and Mr. Watkins are enthusiastic salesmen for Ayn
Rand’s ideas.Their presentation is
flawless.Yaron is already famous as the
Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute.His stirring speeches and commentary can be found on youTube.com and
PJTV, not to mention Fox News and other networks.Don is a fellow of the institute and a
perennial radio and television guest as well as an op-ed writer for Investor’s Business Daily and USA Today to name a few.

“Free Market Revolution” covers two key aspects of Ayn
Rand’s philosophy: her morality of self-interest and her advocacy of laissez
faire capitalism.Rand’s philosophical
approach creates an internally consistent and powerful argument for political
freedom.Find an energetic and
innovative entrepreneur and you’re likely to find someone who has read Rand’s
novel “Atlas Shrugged”.

Part 1 of the book is entitled “The Problem”.It begins by setting the context for the book,
discussing the recent resurgence of interest in Atlas Shrugged and explains the
intellectual and economic malaise that needs Ayn Rand as antidote.This section also analyzes the essential arguments
of the left; especially the argument from need and the argument from greed.It counters these arguments with the suggestion
that liberating the un-free market will restore America’s once powerful place
in the world.

Part 2 makes up the rest of the book and provides some of
the most fascinating ideas ever put to print. It includes a re-evaluation of
the concept of selfishness, the role that it plays in both life and the economy,
and informs us of the discovery, made by Ayn Rand, that business success is not
accomplished by predatory behavior but by innovation, production and win/win trades.Brook and Watkins challenge the idea that
economic transactions are “zero-sum” (which gets at the heart of the Marxist critique
of capitalism).The authors show that
free markets are the engines necessary for improving human life.

In many respects, the book has the feel of a symphony.It starts with a basic theme, allegro, stays there
for a while as it develops; then boldly explores both harmony and rhythm; until
finally, at the end, it finishes with a crescendo of energy and power.By the time we arrive at the last chapter,
entitled “Stopping the Growth of the State”, we have thoroughly examined the
concept of selfishness and discovered its positive aspects and the role it
plays in making society vibrant, innovative and life-enhancing; we've found a solid argument that declares capitalism to be moral; we’ve examined
altruism and how it thwarts life and success; we’ve studied the division of
labor, supply and demand, prices and their role in creating efficient markets; and
we’ve studied how it happened that many people in society have moved from an entitlement morality
to an entitlement mentality.

The last chapter brings us full circle, exploring Rand’s
philosophy further, identifying the major contradiction that has created our
economic decline and provides a strategy that will end big government.

Both Yaron Brook and Don Watkins are competent writers, able
to explain broad philosophical and economic concepts in a way that makes them
real for the average reader.This book
is destined to become a manifesto for prosperity and peace in the world.I highly recommend it.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

I find it positively admirable that Governor
Romney selected Paul Ryan to be his running mate. Ryan’s intellectual
abilities will provide the campaign, and hopefully the Romney administration,
with new ideas and a fresh perspective.

Truth, new ideas, and real solutions will help
win this election for Romney, Ryan and the American people. If Romney doesn't
win, then a collapse of the entitlement state will be the result. You cannot
keep spending at these levels and expect things to get better.The President is offering an alternative policy. It is a policy that we've seen in effect for four years. Just look at the results. But what is the policy? What are the solutions?

The first Presidential debate was clearly
won by Governor Romney. He offered a vision that looks at specific issues and offers specific solutions. But he needs to keep the momentum going by
expanding his criticisms of the President and his impractical policies.There are many opportunities to do that.Here are some suggestions:

1.He should not agree with the
contention that the President inherited a bad economy.He must initiate a discussion of the causes of the subprime crisis of 2008.Obama was a key player in setting up the
regulatory scheme that caused it.He, Bill
Clinton and the Democrats were clearly involved.Obama was part of the original lawsuit
(against Citibank) in 1994 that laid the groundwork for strengthening of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). This strengthening of the CRA mandated that banks should issue more loans to people who did not qualify under threat of prosecution. It was Bill Clinton’s desire to
spur home purchases that created the housing bubble and re-distributed millions
of dollars into the housing industry.Romney should hang the subprime fiasco around
the necks of the Democrats especially Obama.

To accept the premise that Obama inherited a bad economy assumes
that the Republicans caused it.There
are plenty of articles on the Internet about the roles of Obama and Clinton in setting the
foundation that caused our economy to collapse.And there is plenty of video footage of Frank and Dodd blocking legislation designed to avert disaster.Another villain was ACORN, an Obama organization
that routinely accused banks of racism and pressured them to make more loans
to the poor.In fact, if you combine Motor
Voter programs, ACORN, the CRA and the subprime crisis, you get a clear picture
of how influential Obama has been in undermining our economy for many
years.Don’t buy the argument that Obama
had nothing to do with the economic collapse.An argument can be made that he engineered it.

2.Obama claims that he kept the
economy from sinking further.But there
is nothing he did that spurred new economic activity.In fact, he delayed the recovery with his
actions.Had the government not
interfered through further stimulus spending, the economy would have recovered
quickly once housing prices hit bottom. By spreading out the damage
through TARP and the bailouts, all American companies and citizens were forced
to pay for the government-created problem.

First, stimulus
programs are nothing more than re-distribution of money already in the economy,
even if newly printed dollars are used.This
means that any new economic activity they might have generated was done at the expense of
economic activity already taking place.Secondly, Obama blamed capitalism for the
economic decline and wrongly created regulations that harmed businesses.These regulations (Dodd-Frank among others) added
billions of dollars to the cost of doing business and severely impacted the
profitability of many businesses.They
did nothing to avert another disaster, but, in fact, left largely intact the
corrupt framework (Community Reinvestment Act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) that was responsible for
the decline.

3. Regarding the role of
government, the President said, “Government has the capacity, the Federal
Government, has the capacity to help open up opportunity and create ladders of
opportunity and create frameworks where the American people can succeed.Look, the genius of America is the free
enterprise system and, freedom, and the fact that people can go out there and
start a business, work on an idea, make their own decisions, but, as Abraham
Lincoln understood, there are also some things we do better together, so in the
middle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said, let’s help to finance the
transcontinental railroad, let’s start the National Academy of Sciences, let’s
start land grant colleges because we want to give these gateways of opportunity
for all Americans because if all Americans are getting opportunity, we’re all
going to be better off.That doesn’t
restrict peoples’ freedom; that enhances it.And so what I’ve tried to do as President is to apply those same
principles.When it comes to education,
what I’ve said is we’ve got to reform schools that are not working.We’ve used something called “Race to the top”;
it wasn’t a top-down approach, Governor, what we’ve said to states, we’ll give
you more money if you initiate reforms, and as a consequence, you have 46
states around the country who have made a real difference.But what I’ve also said is let’s hire another
hundred thousand math and science teachers to make sure we maintain our
technological lead and our people are skilled and able to succeed and hard
pressed states cannot always do that.In
fact, we’ve seen layoffs of hundreds of thousands of teachers over the last several
years and Governor Romney doesn’t think we need more teachers.I do because I think that is the kind of
investment where the Federal Government can help.It can’t do it all but it can make a
difference and as a consequence we’ll have a better trained workforce and that
will create jobs because companies want to locate in places where we’ve got a
great workforce.“

This statement, I submit, lost the debate for the President. People were looking for an answer here, not this garbled package of collectivist platitudes and deceptions. This answer can’t be
understood by most people; and some people, those who understand what the
President is saying, know that this argument can be used for virtually any
expenditure. The statement is as corrupt as the President's administration. It harkens to a totally unlimited government that can merely create an "emergency" and then offer itself up as the solution. Under this scheme, the government could pump
millions of dollars into failing auto companies, failing banks and failing green
energy companies. It could enrich cronies and campaign contributors, cover for corrupt
union pension programs, hire thousands of government employees to join those unions,
cover the costs of unemployment benefits, food stamps, Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid and ObamaCare. It could funnel millions of dollars to people
who claim they tried to farm (Pigford Scandal), pay for
voter registration programs that help elect the President, take over student
loan programs, the Internet and send millions of
dollars overseas to terrorist organizations.It is “investments”
like these that create trillion dollar deficits.What does this
Abraham Lincoln-approved program consist of?It is an integrated collectivist society, self-consciously organized by technocrats (czars) that
includes political correctness, unlimited majority rule and coerced armies of unskilled people getting paid to do nothing.In essense, the
President is describing a benign fascist dictatorship that, once established, will cease to be benign. Those who don't agree...well, they'll find a way to deal with "those people".Governor Romney should expose this vision and explain what the President really meant. This will communicate that the Governor understands the method in Obama's madness and that he has a sane and workable alternative; the pursuit of happiness and freedom.

4.The “47 percent” quote has
proven problematic for Romney.According
to the left, when he dismissed “the needy” he showed that he was insensitive and detached.When Romney said that
his statement was a mistake or in-artful, he ceded the premise to the
left.Instead, he should say that the
statement was part of a bigger narrative for which Obama is responsible.The President has increased dependency in the
USA by putting more people on welfare.The 47 percent include many people who want to be working and paying
taxes but cannot. What Romney was criticizing was
the President’s effort to buy the votes of the 47 percent.He should talk about how it pains him that so
many Americans are being used as tools by the President.

5.Governor Romney should take
apart the President’s closing statement as pure collectivism, not what America
is about.The President said, “Everything
that I’ve tried to do and everything that I’m now proposing for the next four
years in terms of improving our education system or developing American energy
or making sure that we’re closing loopholes for companies that are shipping
jobs overseas and focusing on small businesses and companies that are creating
jobs here in the United States or closing our deficit in a responsible,
balanced way that allows us to invest in our future; all those things are designed
to make sure that the American people, their genius, their grit, their
determination is channeled and they have an opportunity to succeed and everyone
is getting a fair shot and everybody is doing a fair share and everybody is
playing by same rules.”

Governor Romney
should point out that spending is not investing.You cannot have collective goals and help
individuals; you wind up enslaving productive people and forcing them to
work for goals that are not their own.

He should point out that the President's “channeling” of the American people implies that he knows better what
people should do. He should point out that funding the transcontinental railroad (which was a corrupt and failed endeavor) has now become forcing school children to starve for the sake of Michelle's version of a healthy diet. No one has the
authority or right or ability to decide how people with free will should act.Re-distributing
the money of productive citizens may seem like a good idea to those receiving
the sums; but it is not fair to productive citizens.Doing a “fair share” might seem fair to the
person who is not working but it doesn’t seem fair to the person who is barely getting
by on his own honest work.Playing by
the same rules might seem great to the person who cannot find a job but it
doesn’t seem fair to the person who pays millions of dollars in taxes.When the
President says he wants a balanced approach to deficit reduction, he means
he wants to continue deficit spending and will not compromise with anyone about it.

6.Romney should consider buying
television time for policy speeches and interviews in order to get around the
media.Ronald Reagan did this
effectively and it could help the Governor have more time with the public without the
media filter.

7.Use humor.The first debate burst the bubble on the
President’s intelligence and competence.He’s now on the defense.Use your
ads to find humor in some of his statements and gaffes.People tend not to vote for a bumbling
Chaplin-style politician. Turn the tables on the President and get people
laughing at him and you relieve their fears about his supposed
invulnerability.

8.Don’t forget to accentuate the
positive and the possibilities of a brighter tomorrow.Contrast this future with the present and
show that you can make it happen.

These are the kinds of things Romney can do
that will resonate with people.Not only
do they expose how wrong Obama’s ideas truly are, but they offer a shining
vision of a prosperous future.They offer an alternative opportunity for people to determine their own productive futures rather than have them determined by a faceless government of technocrats.